Where Has the Respect Gone?

As I browse social media, news sites, "news" sites, entertainment sites, etc. One thing has made itself perfectly clear to me. There is one primary thing broken with our society as a whole that transcends cultural boundaries, language barriers, and country borders. The funny thing is (and I mean that not as haha funny but more as odd funny) it's something that could so easily be fixed, if we, as a collective whole, decided we wanted to.

Respect. It's disappearing, fast. What little is left is being torn to shreds, being replaced by a culture of entitlement and infantile whining over things that simply are a part of life. People no longer respect each other simply on principle.

Used to be, even a random stranger walking down the street had your respect unless they did or said something to lose it. Now it's "if they want my respect they have to earn it."
No. Respect should, at least in some small part, be given to everyone, period, unless they lose it. Trust has to be earned, respect should be given without question.

If we all simply gave each other that common respect that people once had for each other, long before social media and the internet, before even the television and telephone, perhaps this world wouldn't be such a terrible place and in such a mess, especially now that rights movements have entitled people to rights that they didn't have back in those times due to their class or color (and ironically even though they hadn't the rights, in many - yes, I know, not all, but many - cases, they had respect from good people.)

Now, people refuse to respect each other because of the color of their skin, or the country they live in, because of their religion, or their sex. They refuse to respect each other because of their sexuality, or their gender identity, or their political party. The lack of respect is overwhelming.

If people could, just for one hour, worldwide, put aside their hate, their prejudices, and talk to one another with respect and the intention to learn and to understand, and with love and peace surrounding their intentions, it's my belief more progress would be made in that one hour toward securing world peace and ending wars and civil unrest than has been made in decades.

It's perfectly alright to have your own beliefs, to have your own opinions, ideals, and morals. But it is not alright to hate, badger, attack and disrespect others simply because theirs aren't the same as yours. It is our differences that make us so beautiful and unique as a species, as a global culture, and it is our sameness upon which progress toward peace can be made.

Please, set out to listen to one another, to someone who believes differently than you, with the intention not of changing them or changing their mind, but simply of learning about them, and understanding them. You may just learn something about yourself in the process.

For my Christian brothers and sisters, remember the words of Christ,
"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."